s never any use in
trying to sift a negro's lies; they have so much imagination that after
five minutes they believe themselves."

"I think I could spot the ghost," I returned. "And that's your precious
Cat-Eye Mose."

Radnor shook his head.

"Mose doesn't need to steal chickens. He gets all he wants."

"Mose," the Colonel added emphatically, "is the one person on the place
who is absolutely to be trusted."

We had almost reached the house, when we were suddenly startled by a
series of shrieks and screams coming toward us across the open stretch
of lawn that lay between us and the old negro cabins. In another moment
an old woman, her face twitching with terror, had thrown herself at our
feet in a species of convulsion.

"De ha'nt! De ha'nt! He's a-beckoning," was all we could make out
between her moans.

The other negroes came pouring out from the kitchen and gathered in a
frenzied circle about the writhing woman. Mose, I noted, was among them;
he could at least prove an alibi this time.

"Here Mose, quick! Get us some torches," Radnor called. "We'll fetch
that ha'nt up here to answer for himself.--It's old Aunt Sukie," he
added to me, nodding toward the woman on the ground whose spasms by this
time were growing somewhat quieter. "She lives on the next plantation
and was probably taking a cross cut through the laurel path that leads
by the cabins. She's almost a hundred and is pretty nearly a witch
herself."

Mose shambled up with some torches--pine knots dipped in tar, such as
they used for hunting 'possums at night, and he and I and Radnor set out
for the cabins. I noticed that none of the other negroes volunteered to
assist; I also noticed that Mose went on ahead with a low whining cry
which sent chills chasing up and down my back.

"What's the matter with him?" I gasped, more intent on the negro than
the ghost we had come to search.

"That's the way he always hunts," Radnor laughed. "There are a good many
things about Mose that you will have to get used to."

We searched the whole region of the abandoned quarters with a
considerable degree of thoroughness. Three or four of the larger cabins
were used as store houses for fodder; the rest were empty. We poked into
all of them, but found nothing more terrifying than a few bats and owls.
Though I did not give much consideration to the fact at the time, I
later remembered that there was one of the cabins which we didn't
explore as thoroughly as the rest.